LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER: Scottish Borders 54200 (None)
NMR: NT 41 SW 6 (54200)
SM: 2150
NGR: NT 4402 1242
X: 344023 Y: 612423 (OSGB36)
This fort exploits the steep slopes at the SW end of a rocky ridge known as Whitcastle Hill. Oval on plan, it measures about 65m from NE to SW by 43m transversely (0.25ha) within its heavily degraded inner rampart, which has been severely reduced by ploughing along the SE flank and by demolition to create later enclosures on the NE. Nevertheless, where better preserved to either side of the entrance at the SW end it forms a low bank, and the flanks of the ridge elsewhere appear to have been deliberately scarped to create a continuous slope dropping between 4.5m and 6m into the bottom of the surrounding rock-cut ditch. The latter has a counterscarp rampart that can be traced round most of the circuit, but like the inner it has been severely reduced by later ploughing and in the NE sector entirely removed. In addition to the entrance piercing the defences on the SW, there is possibly a second on the E, though in 1949 the RCAHMS investigators who drew up the plan (RCAHMS 1956, 393-6, no.865, fig 501) were of the opinion that the trackway that mounts the slope obliquely here, exposing the visitor's right side, was probably a later feature. Despite the cultivation that has impinged upon the defences, the interior has survived largely intact; the entrance at the SW end opens into a scooped court, possibly with a house platform on the NW, while across the raised area beyond it traces of at least four timber round-houses have been revealed by oblique aerial photography. To the NE of the fort there is a cluster of oval and rectangular enclosures that probably represent a phase of late Iron Age settlement, though the cluster is unique in Roxburghshire.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -321212 Y: 7440392 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.885492115630566 Latitude: 55.40256834694675 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Roberton
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
None
| Woodland | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
| Parkland | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing) | ✓ |
| Arable | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland | ✓ |
| Heath | ✗ |
| Built-up | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| Contour Fort | ✓ |
| Partial Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Promontory Fort | ✗ |
| Hillslope Fort | ✗ |
| Level Terrain Fort | ✗ |
| Marsh Fort | ✗ |
| Multiple Enclosure Fort | ✗ |
| Hilltop | ✓ |
| Coastal Promontory | ✗ |
| Inland Promontory | ✗ |
| Valley Bottom | ✗ |
| Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop | ✗ |
| Ridge | ✗ |
| Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp | ✗ |
| Hillslope | ✗ |
| Lowland | ✗ |
| Spur | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature: None
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 305.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Partly ploughed down and overlain on the NE by one of six probably late Iron Age settlement enclosuresa |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme under various conditions in 1985, 1989, 1991 and 2010. CUCAP photographed the fort in 1945.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1858): | Annotated Forts on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 25.9; Name Book, Roxburghshire, No.32, p 76) |
| Other (1873): | Visited by the Berwickshire Naturalist's Club (Brydon 1875, 77-8 |
| Other (1886): | Visited by the Berwickshire Naturalist's Club (Hardy 1887, 391-2; plan taken from the OS map) |
| Earthwork Survey (1949): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 393-6, no.865, fig 501; RCAHMS RXD 188/1 -3) |
| Other (1961): | Scheduled |
| Other (1965): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1987): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Other (1993): | Re-Scheduled |
There is a scooped court with a possible house platform at the SW end and traces elsewhere of at least four timber round-houses
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Traces of at least four timber round-houses revealed by oblique aerial photography. Ring-grooves
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✓ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Excavation | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Geophysics | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Finds | ✓ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Traces of at least four timber round-houses revealed by oblique aerial photography
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Oblique (East): | Possibly a later feature, but a track mounts the slope. Oblique approach exposing right side |
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
Twin ramparts with a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 0.25ha. |
| Total: | 0.25ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.06ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✓ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex | ✗ |
| Timber-framed | ✗ |
| Timber-laced | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Brydon, J (1875) 'Antiquities of the Prehistoric Period of the Hawick Neighbourhood'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 7 (1873-5), 74-81
Hardy, J. (1887) 'Report of meetings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, for the year 1886'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 11 (1885-6), 333-401
RCAHMS (1956) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Roxburghshire: with the fourteenth report of the Commission, 2v. HMSO: Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1